In a letter sent on July 30 to the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, Emmanuel Macron recognizes that France led a « guerre » In Cameroon between 1945 and 1971, reports The world. In this letter made public on Tuesday August 12, the French president indicates that he “Assumes the role and responsibility of France in these events”he writes.
This recognition follows the submission of a 1,000 -page report on the abuses committed by France in Cameroon during these years. The Head of State declared during a visit to Yaoundé in July 2022, take “The solemn commitment to open our archives in full to this group of historians who will allow us to inform this past”indicates an article from France24 of the time. Finalized, the report of historians gathered in a mixed commission of Franco-Cameroonian and co-directed by researcher Karine Ramondy and the Cameroonian artist Blick Bassy, was rendered on January 21, 2025 to President Macron then a week later to his Cameroonian counterpart.
“Repressive violence of a multiple nature”
In his missive, Emmanuel Macron believes that the report “Clearly highlights that a war had taken place in Cameroon, during which the colonial authorities and the French army exercised repressive violence of a multiple nature”. He also admits that “ The war continued beyond 1960 with the support of France to the actions carried out by the independent Cameroonian authorities ”relate The world.
Former German colony, Cameroon had been shared by the CHN (Company of Nations) in 1918 between France which had acquired a large part and Great Britain, Rembobine France24. From 1945 and until 1971, the period on which the Commission looked at, the French authorities present on the spot led a repression of the independence movements and then of the political opposition after the declaration of independence, in 1960.
In detail, historians have retraced “The genesis of the confrontation between the colonial authorities and the independence oppositions to the prism of the long time of the colonial situation (1945-1955), then the shift in political, diplomatic, police and judicial repression towards the war waged by the French army (1955-1960)”, they indicate in their report, some extracts of which have been relayed by The world Last January. During this period, France exercised violent repression with regard to the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC) and massacre the maquis of combatants as well as one of the leaders of the independence movement, Ruben Um Nyobe. The action of the French forces “Continues despite the political transition and independence of Cameroon (1960-1965)-and even beyond, French aid is now within the framework of cooperation between the two countries (1965-1971)”continue the historians.
A symbolic repair
According to the commission estimates, “The accumulation of official military estimates makes it possible to assess the number of fighters killed between 1956 and 1962, a period of stronger involvement of French troops, at some 7,500 individuals”. A figure that could actually be carried “Several tens of thousands” Cameroonian victims. Assassinations accompanied by “Forced displacements from civilians to so -called” grouping “camps” “ or from “Torture practices”. The authors specify that if they do not have “Of no legal competence to qualify these practices as” genocidal “, it is undeniable that these violence have been extreme, because they have transgressed human rights and the law of war”.
Questioned Wednesday August 13 by the television channel France24, researcher Karine Ramondy salutes this recognition “Mostly anticipated” that she sees as “A very strong symbolic repair”the issue of political or financial repairs has not been addressed for the time being, says RFI.
